Out of Eden Walk: Georgian museum guides young travellers

Young history enthusiasts in Georgia are invited to a series of summer hiking tours where experts will lead talks on human experience in travel and interaction with nature.

The Out of Eden Walk is based on an initiative of the same name by Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Paul Salopek and organised by the Georgian National Museum (GNM).

Launched on June 25 at the outdoor Museum of Ethnography in capital Tbilisi, the summer program will run until July 30 and involve six tours for children aged 10-14.

The series are hosted by the museum, which is located on the hill leading up to Tbilisi's Turtle Lake recreational area, and includes discussions on travel and history.

Paul Salopek and his team visited Georgia as part of his global walk following the path of ancient humans out of the African continent. Photo from Paul Salopek/National Geographic.

The museum said interaction with nature and focus on individual experiences was a key part of the program that aimed to take advantage of a successful initiative by Salopek, a fellow of the famous National Geographicmagazine.

The Out of Eden Walk series was created by the American reporter during his foot travels from Africa to other continents, following the path of ancient civilisations.

His walk represented a 21,000-mile, seven-year odyssey that began in Ethiopia and will end on the Tierra del Fuego archipelago in South America.

During his travels, Salopek visited Georgia last year after he was denied a visa for entry to Iran and had to change the route of his walk.

The journalist spent a prolonged piece of time in Georgia while waiting out summer and escaping the torturous heat of his next destination – Turkmenistan.

While resting in Georgia Salopek documented his walks in Georgia's capital Tbilisi and the country's regions in series of articles for the National Geographic magazine website.

He also led a walk from Tbilisi's Mtatsminda Park to the Museum of Ethnography for a team of student enthusiasts, encouraging them to discuss their experiences and relationship with the environment.

The GNM's new project will be held without the participation of Salopek, who has left the country for the next waypoint in his global walk, however the Georgian organisers of Out of Eden Walk said they had drawn on the experience of the initial idea for their new program.